U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,972 of Roy E. LaBounty discloses a container for catching falling debris from bridge deck demolitions. In the process described in this patent, a crane is disposed near a bridge deck and suspends a receptacle by means of a support arm connected to the receptacle. Thereafter, by means of a cable connected to the receptacle and the crane, the receptacle is tilted so that crushed, collected concrete slides off of an open end of the receptacle and into a dump truck.
This process is rather cumbersome and complicated, requiring a crane, a multiplicity of cables, a receptacle, and a dump truck. Furthermore, because of the manner in which the receptacle is supported by the crane and tilted by the crane, the receptacle can only be placed under a portion of the bridge; the device of this patent effectively only can work at the edges of the bridge deck and, after they are demolished, at the new edges so formed; it is not capable of working in the middle of the bridge deck. Thus, multiple cycles involving the steps of placing the receptacle at a specified location, filling the receptacle, moving and unloading the receptacle, moving the crane, repositioning the receptacle, and refilling it, are required.
It is an object of this invention to provide a process for demolishing a bridge structure in which a receptacle for receiving debris from the demolished bridge structure may be located underneath the bridge structure.